Canon Sight
When a film director's work is being discussed, the word 'vision' is bandied about; for what are movies but someone else's view of the world? Yet in this day and age where something like Kangaroo Jack has a making-of featurette and a commentary track, vision is the last thing a audience sees. If at all present, it's remarkably short-sighted; squinting past the bottom line of box office reciepts only to rip off its contemporaries.

Quentin Tarantino's often been accused of the latter, and rightly so: his influences are so defined that Cliff's Notes and a recommendation list should accompany each of his movies. Yet as the saying goes, the degree of separation between plagarism and creativity is how much what you steal becomes your own. So while the home stretch of Uma's kill-crazy rampage may look like familiar territory, it's a whole new view through Quentin's lens.

Saga Of The Bride

Maybe it's Maybelline.

One can only imagine the rent to live under such an all-encompassing rock that those still warding off spoilers and haven't seen Vol. 1 exist, but for their sake, details will be kept to a minimum. The placard reading "Vol. 2" and the same clip from Vol. 1 jolting the audience into the story serve as the only signpost before rejoining our heroine on the highway. Yet nearly immediately one can tell this creation has a far steadier heartbeat than the orgy of action previously seen.

Of course there are still bursts of violence as the Bride rubs out each name on her hit list. A pitched battle with Darryl Hannah's wonderfully unrepentant Elle Driver that leaves a trailer trashed is quite possibly more powerful than the finale with Bill himself, but those who craved more blood and anime after the House of Blue Leaves will find themselves blueballed and parched in the desert setting.

Once Upon a Time in the West & East

After the stroke, no one argued when Grandpa declared himself the Kool-Aid Man.

Much has been made of this disparate pacing between the two parts of the whole, QT himself defining Vol. 2 as his spaghetti western flavored with martial arts while its predecessor was heavy on the chop-socky flavored noodles. And though it's a testament to his skill that the transition between the two is silent, its subtle divide grows during the film's progression to the point that fans of the first volume may not be able to get over it.

Duel Identity

The Action Channel's Antique Roadshow never really caught on.

Ironically, it is this difference -- the pronounced focus on dialogue, the depth of characters as opposed to the caricatures of the first ('caricature' not meant derogatorily since there's a delightful kung-fu Yoda in Vol. 2, but admit it: the only thing missing from the GoGo Yubari fight were life bars for both combatants) that may cause those who scorned the previous flick to embrace this one.

And of course, there are those between the two camps who will see more than the mixtape of influences readily evident at first blush; who will see the most memorable pitch blackness in film this year. They'll see the surpise Bill has and is as the talented eye that made John Travolta matter before he ruined himself turn its gaze on David Carradine and wonder of wonders, elicits a performance proving there's talent beneath his walletlike complexion.

They'll sit patiently through the credits and point out the cameos (a sadly underutilized Samuel L. Jackson, for starters). They'll see the entire movie not as the four-hour exploitation masturbation that its creator feared and that the general public apparently wants it to be, but as defined and fully realized as the actress who lies at its heart.

And the only thing they'll be able to curse Tarantino for is not having a box set as cool as this available stateside, or the already interminable wait until future installments.